In his later years Mark Twain had to face numerous issues and inner conflicts – his fame, age, memories and tragedies. According to Donald Hoffmann (2006), the conflict of his old age and his memories of childhood was the one “he never quite resolved” (Hoffmann 100).
For Twain, his old age was “a wanton insult” (Hoffmann 99). Bruce Michelson (1995) also suggested the reason of Twain's growing despair and nihilism in his “business downturns, old age and failing health” (Michelson 211). At the same, Twain's contemporaries could notice his enthusiasm and energy, yet aging appearance. Donald Hoffmann (2006) in his book Mark Twain in Paradise: His Voyages to Bermuda quoted one of the writer's contemporaries named Sinclair who recollected his conversation with Twain: “He chatted about past times, as old men like to do. I saw that he was kind, warm-hearted, and also full of rebellion against capitalist greed and knavery; but he was an old man, and a sick man” (qtd. in Hoffmann 99).
This quotation may reflect a traditional attitude towards a very famous, yet old, writer. This attitude towards age or old age changed considerably through the centuries. However, it has always depended upon social, and cultural norms, and traditions of each country. Old age has always been defined differently by each country or society in particular. For instance, in the USA in the XIX century old age was defined by means of two approaches – the “good” and
“bad” old age. According to Thomas R. Cole's (1992) observations in the book The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America, there were two types of old age defined by the set of stereotypes of the American society in the XIX century - “the “good” old age of virtue, health, self-reliance, natural death, and salvation; and the “bad” old age of sin, disease, dependency, premature death and damnation” (161-162). So it can be concluded, that each society together with its social, cultural and historical stereotypes has the right to define old age.
Other research conducted by Beth B. Hess and Elizabeth W. Markson (1991) in the book Growing Old in America was even more critical in their definition when they considered that the American society in the nineteenth century presented evident attempts of “the demeaning of old age and the marginalization of the elderly” (Hess and Markson 30). Moreover, they found the reasons of commonly negative social understanding of old age which were rooted in the religious traditions of the USA. For instance, New England Puritans “constructed a
dialectical view of old age, emphasizing both the inevitable losses and decline that come with aging and hope for life and redemption” (Hess and Markson 30). Referring to Calvinist convictions in the society, “old age entailed physical, mental, and moral deterioration. Pain
and chronic disease were considered part of humanity’s punishment for the sin of Adam”
(Hess and Markson 31). These attitudes of the society based on religious traditions considered the process of aging to be a direct result of the people being responsible for their sins and failures. One more important aspect of a negative attitude towards old age was rooted in the increase of industrialization of the society. The younger Americans were sure that the old people could not contribute significantly to the economic wealth or labor market of the USA.
In a different academic study of the role of old age in the nineteenth century America, entitled Growing Old in America, David H. Fischer (1978) presented the overview of the attitudes towards elderly people in literature and politics. Fischer underlined one positive side of a social image of old age – it was that some proverbs and pieces of literature associated age with wisdom (Fischer 129). At the same time, Fisher suggested that an overwhelming
implication of the society was “that age is ugly and beauty is young” (Fischer 130). More than that, the political life of the nineteenth century America presented the constant attacks of
“young ambitious politicians of ‘Young American Movement’ who attacked the elderly politicians” (Fischer 130). According to Fischer’s research, America needed young heroes,
“the frontiers”, with cowboys and young men of the West. So it can be concluded that the nineteenth century American society entered the phase when a cult of youth was developed.
Finally, in the research entitled Beyond Sixty-Five: The Dilemma of Old Age in America's Past, Carole Haber (1983) found that similar negativity of the nineteenth century American society was spread on two categories – aged people and poor people. With urban and
industrial growth, for both categories “job opportunities seemed to diminish rapidly” (Haber 33). To sum it all up, the American society at the time of Mark Twain’s final years considered an old man to be lost in personal misfortunes, mental and physical decline, and social
incapability.
In spite of these traditional prejudices of the American society, Mark Twain preserved the image of a very popular and socially very active figure in many occasions – he took part in numerous public evenings, meetings and speeches. Being called “America's uncrowned king”
(qtd. in Hoffmann 99), he continued to be very active in his professional life as well. Michael Shelden suggests the idea that Mark Twain's old age was “much sadder than many of his contemporaries would have suggested [...] it was also funnier and a lot happier than later generations of critics and biographers have been willing to admit” (Shelden xxx). Shelden advocates a viewpoint that Twain was trapped by the prejudices of the American society of the nineteenth century towards old age when Twain “repeatedly demonstrated an ability to rise above its limitations and tragedies” (Shelden xxxiii). For this reason, it is important for
Twain's critics and biographers to notice that Twain's talent as a humorist can be considered to be this ability of coping with tragedies, prejudices and limitations of his age. The analysis of the use of humor and other rhetorical comic forms in the following parts of the research is considered to suggest the idea that the image of the writer cannot be fully associated with the society’s prejudices towards old age and the critics' image of Twain in his final years. There were moments of despair and frustration in the later years of the writer. Nevertheless, the complexity of his humorous and comic voices in his numerous public and private activities can also suggest the idea of both active and positive aspects in Mark Twain’s later career and life.
For Mark Twain, youth was the best and most valuable time in the life of every person. In support of this observation, Harold K. Bush (2008) suggested that “Twain almost idolized the pleasant valley of childhood” (Bush 209). John Cooley (2009) adds that Twain's adoration of youth was “his longstanding conviction” that it is “the finest and most valuable time of life”
(Cooley 2). As it will be presented in the further chapters, he exaggerated youth as the blessed time for everyone in many of his writings featuring juvenile characters, in his correspondence with the members of the Aquarium Club or in his speeches which he presented in front of a young audience. The writer became truly sentimental and sensitive when he recollected his own youth. Moreover, he treated the company of young children with an evident sympathy and admiration. In one of his later letters in 1901, Mark Twain stated that:
The whole scheme of things is turned wrong end to. Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages. As things are now, when in youth a dollar would bring a hundred pleasures, you can't have it. When you are old, you get it and there is nothing worth buying with it then. It's an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity. (qtd.
in Rasmussen 5)
By means of these words Mark Twain agreed to the common belief of his contemporaries – old age meant the loss of ability to enjoy life. Nonetheless, the writer was able to revive his personal capacities to enjoy life and follow an active social life. But this aspect will be discussed and analyzed further in the research. In their criticism Van Wyck Brooks and Hamlin Hill suggested the period of his old age to be full of despair, pessimism and
frustration. They found the reasons for the darkness in the final phase rooted in his old age as well. Van Wyck Brooks thought that “Mark Twain was a frustrated spirit, a victim of arrested development [...] much of the chagrin of his old age” (Brooks 40). Hamlin Hill pointed at the idea that “his old age dulled his creative instincts”, and “age was itself a contributing factor”
(Hill 273) of his frustration and failures as a writer. Among the writer’s personal failures and losses, his old age and problems which may accompany elderly people can be considered as the prior argumentation for frustration and despair in the final years of the writer. In his book Mark Twain's Last Years as a Writer, W. M. MacNaughton (1979) concluded about his final years that “the consensus about Mark Twain as a writer during these last approximately thirteen years is that he was a failure” (MacNaughton 2).
On the other hand, more and more viewpoints in the modern studies of age and humor suggest that together with a set of health problems and a kind of decline in the final years, many of the elderly people continue considerable social and mental activities. Twain's later active social involvement and numerous public performances can also indicate moments of enthusiasm and high mental activity when he had both sad and happy experiences. More than that, modern studies in the field of age suggest that social and public activities contribute much to the positive side in the life during the old age. In the article Successful Aging, John W. Rowe and Robert L. Kahn (1997) suggested that aging of an individual cannot be defined only by his/her mental or physical decrease. Each personal lifestyle, his/her mental and social involvement or physical activities contribute to successful aging. Rowe and Kahn confirmed several aspects which positively influence the aging process – participation in highly physical and cognitive activities, and sustained engagement in social life (Rowe and Kahn 433-440).
This approach can contribute to the viewpoint that Twain's active social life and his evident enthusiasm in public performances contributed to positive moments in his later years.
In its turn, humor, as a considerable part of an individual’s social and mental activities, is confirmed to convey a positive role in an individual’s later years. More than that, theorists in the humor studies, Tracey Platt and Willibald Ruch (2010), suggested that successful aging can be defined by a person’s ability of having sense of humor - “positive, good-natured humor assists successful interactions in daily life” (Platt and Ruch 232). Similarly, studies have shown direct interrelations between having a sense of humor and coping with stress. The studies were initiated by J. A. Thorson and F. C. Powell (1991), and by N. A. Kuiper, R. A.
Martin, and K. A. Dance (1992). In a more recent research entitled Mood and Human Performance: Conceptual, Measurement, and Applied Issues, Andrew M. Lane (2007) summarized the scholars’ findings that provide with “convincing evidence for numerous psychological benefits of humor” (Lane 202). However, it is important to differentiate positive (irony, wordplay) and negative (sarcasm, satire, ridicule or mockery) forms or sides of the same phenomenon, humor. Scholars agree that humor conveys both “positive and negative emotions” (Lane 202). Sense of humor is multidimensional in its nature (Thorson
and Powell 1993). That is why, it includes “production, coping with, liking, and improving humor stimulus” (Lane 202). In its turn, the physical reaction can differ “from laughter/smile, or tension, uneasiness, and even anger (distress)” (Lane 203). More than that, humor is regularly implied to set positive social connections and coping with age-related issues.
According to Damianakis and Marziali's (2011) findings in the article “Community-dwelling Older Adults,” elderly people confirmed using and enjoying affiliative, enhancing, self-defeating forms and styles of humor, but none of them could define their humor styles as negative or aggressive. On the other hand, a different sociological experiment by M. Martin, M. Gruenendahl and P. Martin (2001) in their article “Age Differences in Stress, Social Resources, and Well-being in Middle and Older Age”, revealed the results that prove the idea that the elderly people are more commonly used (in contrast to young and middle-aged individuals) of both affiliative humor and aggressive humor. All in all, researchers in the recent studies measure the potential of coping skills of each individual by means of his/her personal level of sense of humor (both production and comprehension) (Thorson, Powell, Sarmany-Schuller, Hampes 605).
In conclusion, modern approaches suggest that definite moments of happiness and joy can continue when a person enters the phase of old age. Being old, an individual may still enjoy his life by means of various mental, social and physical activities. More than that, each person’s sense of humor can be a remarkable tool while coping with both personal and general problems of old age. Thus, humor, sense of humor or numerous humorous activities do not always decline when a person enters old age. Due to each person’s individual
peculiarities, humor and sense of humor can be distinguished from the ones when he/she is younger. Elderly people are more careful with the use of humor in their public and social activities. The more the elderly use humor and its forms (both from positive or negative perspectives), the more skillful they are when coping with their personal and general
problems of old age. All in all, these findings can serve to be applicable in this research when the personality of Mark Twain is observed from a variety of perspectives. In spite of a
considerable number of personal health problems, business failures, disappointments and tragedies, the aging writer implied his humorous voice and comic style in a varied number of later activities. Finally, this fact can be suggested as evidence that Twain both enjoyed many pleasant moments and was coping in some way with his internal experiences by means of humor in many of its forms.
Chapter 1 vividly illustrates evolution in the criticism concerning Mark Twain in his later years. If the earliest studies, the ones by Van Wyck Brooks (1920), Bernard DeVoto (1940) or Hamlin Hill (1973), insisted on Mark Twain's predominant pessimistic and frustrated
perception of life, the most recent research, the one by Michael Shelden (2010) or Harold H.
Kolb Jr. (2014), tend to offer a more complex portrait of the writer. Yet, just few of the critics, such as James M. Cox (1966), David E. Sloane (1993) or Harold H. Kolb Jr. (2014), focused on the role of humor in Mark Twain's final years. Chapter 1 also notes that a
phenomenon of humor is complex and contradictory, with no universal definition or theoretical consideration suggested. Nevertheless, according to a combination of strategies and methods, the project suggests step-by-step interpretation of the texts so that to identify humorous material by means of finding definite forms of humorous rhetoric. Chapter 1 suggests definitions of those humorous rhetoric forms that were characteristic of Mark Twain when he performed in public or kept in private. Interpretation of the uses of hyperbole, pun/word-play, irony, sarcasm or satire “bridges” between the meaning and importance of these rhetoric forms and inner thoughts, moods and intentions of Mark Twain. Finally, Chapter 1 mentions about the importance of the topic of age when it is related to the phenomenon of humor. The chapter suggests that there were prejudices in the nineteenth-century USA concerning old age. However, this part of the research also notes the critics observations about the ways how Mark Twain was coping with his old age. All in all, in this chapter it is tended to conclude that old age is not always associated with decline, despair and loss of sense of humor. According to Damianakis and Marziali's (2011), people do not give up active social life when they enter old age. On the basis of contemporary findings in the field of gerontology, it is suggested that Mark Twain's later years cannot be associated only with decline, personal failures and health problems. Continuing active social life, hard work and mental activities, the writer did not give up numerous moments of joy and communication in public and in private.
Chapter 2. Humor in Mark Twain’s Later Writings